A federal grant will help Northampton County Prison inmates get out of jail and find jobs.

Northampton County Prison will roll out a job center designed to get inmates out of cells and into the workforce thanks to a $500,000 federal grant, county officials announced Friday.

The two-year grant will allow the county to provide one-on-one job counseling and training for about 212 inmates, said Director of Corrections Daniel Keen. Helping these people find employment will allow them an opportunity to stay crime-free, which would improve their lives and the community, he said.

"Finding a job is definitely difficult. Finding a job when you have a criminal background is even harder," he said.

The program will be run by the Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board, which is funded by federal tax dollars distributed by the state. Executive Director Nancy Dischinat said the board will hire four employees to create and host a center at the prison in the next nine months.

"We're working with them on a career pathway. It's not a career pathway to stay in jail. It's a career pathway on how you stay out of jail and how you put your life in order," she said. "This is serious business that we're very passionate about."

Employees will work with inmates to determine their strengths and weaknesses, ask them what they hope to accomplish outside of prison and review the skills they have and the ones they want to develop. Some would need help with basics such as developing the interpersonal skills needed for a job interview or learning how to write a resume. As it is, the average inmate is unemployed for a year after being released, she said.

Executive John Brown touted the program as another tool for the county to save taxpayer dollars and improve quality of life. It costs the county approximately $100 a day to house an inmate at the prison, so getting some of the program's graduates to avoid even short-term stints behind bars can affect the bottom line, he said.

"If we find savings with the program, I don't think it will be difficult to continue the program within the county or with outside dollars," he said.

The grant is the latest in a series of changes in how the county attempts to get inmates to avoid return trips to prison. County Council cut funding in December for Community Education Centers, a business that ran alcohol treatment programs and parenting classes at the West Easton Treatment Center. An audit by Controller Stephen Barron found half the graduates from the $750,000 annual program wound up back in jail.

In its place, the county has created a mental health court and post-conviction drug court. Neither of the programs requires any additional funding from the county, and court officials hope they will get people into treatment and out of the criminal justice system.

The mental health court is designed to avoid prosecution for defendants who commit nonviolent crimes because of their mental illnesses. If the applicants complete their treatment and requirements from the court, the charges are dismissed. The post-conviction drug court provides treatment outside of the prison to defendants who violate their parole or probation because of drug addictions.